Weatherford Rises as $1 Billion Asset Sales Eyed

April 25 (Bloomberg) -- Weatherford International Ltd.
climbed the most in five years after reporting better-than-expected earnings and forecasting as much as $1 billion in
divestiture proceeds by year-end amid a planned corporate
turnaround.

The world’s fourth-largest oilfield services provider rose
11 percent to $20.47 at the close in New York, the most since
Jan. 21, 2009.

The Geneva-based company reported earnings after the close
of regular trading yesterday, excluding certain items, that beat
the 11-cent average of 29 analysts’ estimates compiled by
Bloomberg. Weatherford has previously named five businesses it’s
looking to sell or split off and expects to generate $500
million to $1 billion in asset sales by the end of this year,
Chief Executive Officer Bernard Duroc-Danner said today on a
conference call.

“It’s the lack of bad news on the earnings front combined
with the progress in the restructuring that’s really what’s
pushing the stock,” Stephen Gengaro, an analyst at Sterne Agee
& Leach in New York, who rates the shares a buy and owns none,
said today in a phone interview. “Their track record of meeting
expectations has been really poor.”

Prior to last year’s third quarter, Weatherford missed
adjusted earnings-per-share estimates in 10 out of the past 11
quarters, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The first
quarter this year marks the third consecutive period of better-than-expected results.

Cautiously Optimistic

“People have gone from being pessimistic to being
cautiously optimistic to having some of the impediments to their
optimism removed,” Gengaro said.

Weatherford expects second-quarter earnings per share to be
in the range of 21 to 23 cents, higher than the 18-cent average
of 28 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The company, which has 15 buy ratings from analysts, 16
holds and two sells, is the second-best performer this year in
the Philadelphia Oil Service Index, climbing 32 percent. Nabors
Industries Ltd., the world’s largest land-rig contractor,
climbed the most at 46 percent.